The Foley effect.

[Kablooie]

It seems that a great number of Americans are too feeble minded to understand concepts like "these policies will erode your rights" and "he lied by picking and choosing the intel he used to justify..." and "He accepted donations that were illegal according to ..." etc.

This kind of talk has no more meaning to these people than a mathematical formulation of the theory of relativity has to the average person.

So most of the scandals that have hit recently just pass over these people's heads. They simply accept what others around them say because they have no way to judge for themselves.

But if the scandal is something so basic that even they can understand, they begin to think. Not clearly, of course, but they can form an opinion.

"I did not have sex with that woman." is a simple and direct enough statement that they could see the lie for themselves. Ergo, an uproar amongst the dim.

But also "a homosexual guy who comes onto kids" is a simple enough concept to grasp. They can form their own opinion about this situation.

This scandal could be the one that finally punches through the GOP bullshit wall and hits the average doofus in the face.

[Old and In the Way]

1. The Foley scandal ranks about 534th on my outrage meter.

It amazes me that this is the straw that is breaking the camel's back. But if that's what it takes to get the apolitical middle to wake up and throw these bums out, I'll gladly fan these flames.

[Virginia Dare]

5. It's a symptom...

but not the actual disease. Often it's the symptoms that kill you though.

[Silent3]

6. Yep, that's how I feel about it.

There's so much stuff going on that's incredibly more important than Foleygate, so many incredibly good reasons to throw the Republican bums out of Congress. Unfortunately, however, a tawdry sex scandal is just the kind of thing it takes to break through into the sadly dim-witted collective conscience of the public.

I'd much rather see Republicans lose because the public sees their corruption and incompetence, sees the terrible policy making, sees the skewed priorities that pander to the rich and powerful, sees the way a Republican Congress is enabling an out-of-control Presidency.

But most of all, I want to see the Republicans lose, period. I'll take that anyway I can get it for now, and hope that the real wake-up call happens when Democrats gain the investigative powers of Congress and can show everyone what's really been going on these past few years.

[ClassWarrior]

2. Make the connections for them: the corrupt GOP leadership coddled...

...a child predator for their own political gain - which is their one and only motivation.

NGU.

[Orrex]

3. Too many GOP scandals are too easily dismised as "business as usual"

The lazy-minded assumption is that all politicians are equally bad, in terms of greed and corruption, so everything that the GOP has done is just written off because it seems like standard background noise. But a sex scandal? A creepy, man-chases-boy sex scandal? Well, that's an outrage, and people must be made to answer for it!

That kind of willful blindness is foolish, of course, but people only have so much brainspace to devote to reality TV; it's just not reasonable to expect that they'd be able to fit any actual reality into their heads.

[CoffeeCat]

4. My thoughts exactly...

I'm outraged by thousands of BushCo crimes and atrocious acts. Add Foley's crimes to the large mountain of sickness in the GOP.

Since Junior was elected, I feel as if I've been standing in a crowded room--screaming for the nation to wake up. They never really did; despite torture, Iraq, illegal wiretapping, spying on bank accounts, Katrina, the deficit, Plame, etc.

Now, we have the Republican party busting wide open--because of a sex scandal. Now people are waking up. Now they see.

The Foley situation showcases--so succinctly--Republican corruption, lack of values and their penchant for lying and covering up. That's a common theme with Republican, and one that threads throughout all of their crimes and bad policies.

We've known all along that Junior is about as religious and spiritual as a ping-pong ball. He used the Fundies to win the pResidency. However--Junior and most of the Republican Congress members, could care less about religion. We've known it all along. This scandal demonstrates the truth about these people--and the fact that they are evil. They'll solicit adolescents over the Internet, cover for each others' pedophilia and hide the truth from the American people. Hopefully, the Fundies will get it now.

If it takes a sex scandal--for people to understand what we've been screaming about--since these thugs were elected--then so be it.

This scandal put an inescapable magnifying glass on the Republican party. It's not just about Foley. It's about their non-stop lying, partisanship and hypocrisy that permeates all of their failed policies.